Hackers drain over $6 billion from Binance

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, lost more than $6 billion in a hack that occurred on Friday.

The company stated that hackers stole the assets in what appears to be the largest cryptocurrency heist on record.

Binance has reserved more than $6.34 billion of company funds to cover the loss. It began recovering user assets immediately.

Blockchain partners helped the exchange freeze roughly $3 billion of the affected assets.

TRM, a U.S.-based blockchain intelligence firm, attributed the attack to TraderTraitor. It identified the group as North Korea's elite hacking unit.

"We make this judgment with high confidence," TRM wrote on its website late Thursday. The firm noted that an attacker moved approximately $6.36 billion out of Binance wallets across ten blockchains. Most of the transfer occurred in about 20 minutes.

Chainalysis, another blockchain analysis company, also linked the hack to TraderTraitor. Jonathan Levin, the company's co-founder and CEO, shared this belief on X.

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that U.S. officials were investigating the incident. When asked about North Korean involvement, he replied, "We're looking at that."

Binance's co-CEO Richard Teng posted a video to X on Friday. "We are working nonstop to resolve this," he said. Teng confirmed that a Binance hot wallet was affected.

He explained that most user assets sit in cold wallets, which are offline. Assets only move to a hot wallet when a user makes a withdrawal.

Teng stated that the attack was not carried out by one person. The attackers used complex tactics, including a self-destruct mechanism that complicates the investigation.

The exchange said deposits were unaffected. Withdrawals remain suspended but are expected to resume within the next day or two. Binance promised to cover all losses and is sharing updates on social media channels as it uncovers more details. A spokesperson said the company is working closely with law enforcement partners to confirm the criminals' identity. Experts note that North Korea has turned to crypto hacking to obtain foreign currency. This helps support its economy and fund its nuclear program in the face of U.N. sanctions. In December 2022, South Korea's spy agency reported that North Korean hackers stole an estimated $1.1 billion in virtual assets over five years. More than half of that theft happened in 2022 alone. Bybit, another exchange, suffered a $1.5 billion hack in February of last year. The FBI attributed that attack to North Korea and TraderTraitor. Changpeng Zhao, Binance's founder, wrote on X that while this hack is the largest by dollar value, previous attacks like the one on Mt. Gox affected a larger amount of bitcoin. Garrick Hileman, an independent cryptocurrency analyst, said hackers are already transferring and converting unrecovered assets. He compared the process to money laundering, where stolen goods are mixed with other cryptos to make them harder to track. Andy Ward, a senior vice president at Absolute Security, warned that cyber attacks of this scale may become more commonplace as threats grow more sophisticated.